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Jim Harbaugh threw 129 career touchdowns, led his team to an AFC Championship Game and directed enough second-half charges to earn the nickname “Captain Comeback.”

So, naturally, one of the proudest moments of Harbaugh’s 15-year career didn’t end in an end zone. It began, and concluded, at the bottom of a pile.

This week, Harbaugh, who was sporting his gas-station-style, blue-collar work shirt at practice today, offered more evidence that he’s the antithesis of a pretty boy ex-quarterback.

On Wednesday, a reporter asked Harbaugh a few questions about what it’s like to fight for a loose ball at the bottom of a pile. You know, gouging, scratching, pulling and worse.

At one point, Harbaugh was asked about the worst thing that’s happened to him in one of those masses of angry humanity and, in response, he looked like a guy recounting the glories of his 1995 NFL MVP runner-up season.

His big moment came during the fourth quarter of a game against the Dolphins when he was playing for the Colts.

“It was probably one of my proudest plays as a player, to go in to one of the piles, had half of the ball and was able to work it and came up with the ball,” Harbaugh said. “It was exactly how I described it, like an arm wrestling match. Couldn’t even lift up my arms after I was done because I was straining so hard to keep the leverage of the ball.”

As a quarterback, Harbaugh was asked, did he think about staying out of those piles to avoid injury?

“It’d be hard to live with yourself if you turned that down as a quarterback or any other position,” he said. “(There are) some things that really bother a man all the way to the rest of his life.”

Today, Harbaugh said he’s had conversations with defensive tackle Will Tukuafu and tight end Delanie Walker about life at the bottom of the pile.